Report: Former Vikings assistant to be a head coach in the XFL

Former Minnesota Vikings assistant Marc Trestman will reportedly be the head coach for the team based in Tampa, Florida when the XFL re-launches in 2020.

When the XFL returns in 2020, one of their franchises will be lead by a head coach that should be familiar to at least a few fans of the Minnesota Vikings.

On Saturday, it was revealed that former Vikings assistant Marc Trestman is going to be named the head coach of the XFL team based in Tampa, Florida according to the Tampa Bay Times’ Thomas Bassinger. The league will make a formal announcement regarding the hire at 11 a.m. ET on Tuesday.

With their hiring of Trestman, Tampa is the fourth XFL franchise to find a head coach for their team since the league announced its return last January. Bob Stoops, Jim Zorn, and Pep Hamilton have also been named head coaches for other franchises in the XFL.

Trestman has been coaching in the CFL for the past two years and he was last on an NFL staff back in 2016 when he was the offensive coordinator for the Baltimore Ravens. Prior to that gig, he was the head coach of the Chicago Bears for two seasons from 2013 to 2014.

The XFL’s latest head coach got his first job in the NFL with the Vikings in 1985 when he was put in charge of the team’s running backs. A native of Minnesota, Trestman left the Vikings after the 1986 season and then later returned to be the team’s quarterbacks coach in 1990 and 1991.

Prior to becoming a coach, he actually tried out for Minnesota as a defensive back in 1978 and 1979. However, Trestman failed to make the Vikings’ roster each time and he eventually began to shift his role into being a coach instead of a player.

The XFL’s Tampa franchise does not have a nickname yet, but they will be sharing their home venue with the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Raymond James Stadium. The league is set to return on the weekend of February 8, 2020.